NBA TV Nets Cable-Carriage Deals

Less than one month before the 2003-04 season opens, the National BasketballAssociation's NBA TV digital service has secured its first cable affiliatedeals.

Cablevision Systems Corp., Cox Communications Inc. and Time Warner Cable willoffer the 24-hour channel beginning next month, but all three MSOs will placethe service on digital tiers or in their most costly all-in-one packages,network officials said.

Launched as a digital service last January after three years as a barkerservice for the "NBA League Pass" pay-per-view package, NBA TV had been unableto secure cable distribution.

Terms were not disclosed. Sources said the league got close to the25-cent-per-subscriber fee it initially pitched to operators last year.

NBA TV president Ed Desser would not reveal specific subscriber projectionsfor the network’s Oct. 30 launch, but he said the league is pleased.

"The three MSOs together represent 22 million subscribers," Desser said."This will be a rollout that takes place over several years."

Along with live games, NBA TV will air nightly updates and highlights ofgames during the season, as well as vintage games and related programming.

Desser said the network will also debut several new shows beginning nextmonth, including a reality miniseries focused on the Denver Nuggets’ preseasontraining camp. Staying within the reality genre, NBA TV will bow in NovemberNBA Makeover, in which current NBA players, league veterans andstreet-ball legends remake their basketball skills, wardrobe, style andattitude, Desser said.

Also debuting on the channel is a weekly magazine show that featuresinternational players and highlights a foreign game of the week

For more details on how the three MSOs plan to deploy the network, check outTom Umstead’s story on page 6 of Monday’s issue of MultichannelNews.